The act of sketching defines and redefines boundaries. Everyone who makes sketches, whether on paper, in software or, increasingly, in hardware. Sketching may begin with an idea, but the process fundamentally changes that idea. Sketches identify both what an idea is, and what it is not. They serve as histories and illustrations. Sketching tools simultaneously help and constrain the possibilities of sketching. Make a new sketching tool and new boundaries appear, while old ones dissolve.

This year's theme is Boundary Conditions

Through discussion, experience and sketching we will examine the boundaries in developing physical computing: boundaries between components, between standards, between making objects and creating experiences, between cost and sustainability, between the expected and the unorthodox, and between creator and toolkit.

Sketching in Hardware 2 will be a two day meeting of people intimately involved in this field to discuss the ideas, methods, challenges and potential of physical computing technologies.

DETAILS The summit will be held on June 23-24, 2007 at the Mechanics' Institute Library in downtown San Francisco . The Mechanics' Institute Library is the oldest library on the West Coast and a cornerstone of the technological development of San Francisco , which became a major worldwide center of innovation in metal, mining and shipping, rivaling today's Silicon Valley in its impact on the world.